Adam Pash

Windows only: Freeware system tray app ProcessTamer is a lightweight CPU usage monitoring tool that watches your computer for CPU hogs and "tames" them before they freeze up your computer.

ProcessTamer does this by changing the priority of applications with wildly escalating CPU usage. This is one of those apps you'll have to try for yourself to decide whether it works for your situation, but if you have an app or two that constantly locks up your computer when you open it or perform a certain operation, ProcessTamer is definitely worth a look. It's Windows only freeware, but to use ProcessTamer without the nag message, you need to give the site an email address in order to get a free license key (if you don't want to hand out your email, you can always get a fake one). — Adam Pash